Twilight Garden from Zoflora

I have been using Zoflora for a few years now and it has become part of my cleaning routine, making sure everything from my toilet to the bin smells nice and are bacteria free.

They recently relaunched a fragrance after popular demand, Twilight Garden, a blend of moonlight flowering lilies with the richness of ylang ylang and jasmine, balanced with uplifting notes of peach and musk.

Unlike my usual favourite, Springtime, this fragrance is more like a perfume and is very strong but I like it and we've been using it in our downstairs toilet, my children love it.

The great thing about Zoflora is that if you clean the toilet with it, it leaves a long lasting scent not only on the toilet itself but on the toilet brush, so whenever you clean the loo it smells great again.

It is also perfect for popping on a bit of kitchen paper and placing in the bottom of your bin, it leaves it smelling great.

Zoflora have a world of information about how to use the disinfectant over on their website as well as some great ideas in their news section. 

They currently have a competition over on their Facebook page where you could win a £500 holiday from Best Loved Hotels, plus many more prizes available including ‪flowers‬, garden centre gift vouchers and Zoflora Twilight Garden.

NB: I was sent this product to review, all words and opinions are my own.

Make Your Own Scrabble Art

I'm always trying to find unique ways to make the house look pretty and these scrabble art pictures are the perfect way to create wonderful pieces to hang in your home.

You can usually find old scrabble sets for a few pounds either at the charity shop or car boots, so do keep an eye out if you fancy a go at this.  For the background on this picture I used some sample pieces of wallpaper I'd picked up when we had been in the DIY store, you could use wrapping paper, a map, photo or any other type of paper or even fabric.

You'll also need some glue and a box frame, you can have a search around the charity shops for a frame or you can buy a new one, they are usually quite reasonably priced from places like Wilkos, B&M, Home Bargains or even one of the supermarkets.

First of all take the back from your frame and lay on the backside of your paper or fabric, draw around the edge and then carefully cut out the background, it is worth trying out your scrabble pieces on the paper or fabric to make sure it is easy to see, on busy backgrounds they might not be so obvious. Once you are happy then stick the paper or fabric to the back piece of the frame, I used Dovecraft glue from Wilkos, it is really strong and only about £1.

Once you have glued the paper/fabric to the back of the frame then you need to lay out your words, have a play with a few words you like and you'll eventually find something you love, obviously the words need to be able to connect, have as many or as few as you like. Names, special words or places are great to add. 

Once you are happy with the words you have chosen and the layout then carefully stick them down onto your chosen background, if you are using a large frame it might be worth using a ruler or spirit level to make sure the lines are straight.

Once you have finished, careful place the back into the frame and there you have it, a simple but effective picture, perfect to give as a gift or just for yourself. Now all you have to do is decide where you'd like to hang it and how many more you can make with the left over pieces.

The great thing about this project is, if you get bored of the background or fancy a change you can just take off the tiles and start again.

What would you put on yours?

New House, New Kitchen/Diner, New Design

We are currently in the middle of a house move, we are moving into a new property and it has a fabulous kitchen/diner, this has led to lots of browsing for new dining tables and furniture to fit into the space.

First up Habitat, they have some wonderful pieces at the moment. I absolutely adore this dining table set, some chairs to snuggle, watch telly in and read a book for the kids whilst I cook dinner. Then this absolutely wonderful desk, which I have the perfect space for, it means I can use it to store my gorgeous vintage pyrex and cups and sauces in too.

The rug is bright, colourful and perfect for adding a drop of colour to the bare rooms. I am also in love with this dinner service, I love the fact you can mix and match and I think this looks better than having all the same pattern.

Habitat Kitchen by themummydiary featuring white furniture

Handmade wool area rug / Black porcelain plate / White oak table / Gray furniture / Upholstered arm chair / Stack furniture / White furniture / Spindle chair

Next up, John Lewis, a similar collection to Habitat. I love this table, chairs and bench, in fact I am loving the idea of a bench, more people can squeeze on when we have people round. The children both have Stokke Tripp Trapps, which add more colour and mean that we only need a couple of chairs.

I'd also add a beautiful rug and some fabulously colourful plates and bowls for a pop of colour to the room. For the computer, there is this brilliant and moveable ladder desk, an ingenious idea which I have the perfect corner for.

John Lewis Kitchen by themummydiary featuring a ladder desk

John Lewis rug / John Lewis extendable dining table / John Lewis dining chair / John Lewis bench / Ladder desk / Royal Doulton Fable Tableware

Alas though, I need a new vacuum first and there will probably be a few fixtures and fittings required so these will have to wait, but it's better to have an idea of what I would like, right?

Getting the Best from Your Mortgage

These days everyone is trying to find ways of saving money, some by switching to a different supermarket for your weekly shop, or more drastically, downsizing to a smaller car.

For many people who own a home, the mortgage is their biggest outgoing but it is often one that is overlooked when trying to save money.

At the end of last year, we spoke to a mortgage advisor, we discussed our situation and that we were concerned about the possibility of the interest rates rising and we wanted to fix our payments for a few years.

It was a simple process and one that took an hour out of our life but in the end saved us £85 a month on our mortgage for the next 2 years. We didn’t need to extend the term or borrow any more money so it was a straightforward fix.

So what can you do? You can check you are getting the best mortgage deal, Santander have a great selection of mortgage calculators and tools to help you out.

If you don’t have a mortgage, then this is a great way to see how much you could borrow to buy a home, they also have a budget planner to help you work out what you spend each month.

So why not have a look and see what you can save.

NB: This is a collaborative post, all words are my own.

Christmas Magic

I love this time of year, so many magical memories being made and moments to share with our children, I just love the smells, smiles and fun that surrounds it.

So far, in the run up to Christmas, we have built a gingerbread house, which amazingly is still waiting to be eaten...

Also, this weekend, we took the children to the local garden centre to visit santa. He was the perfect Santa, jolly, kind and really took time to listen to both our children. They were both ecstatic to meet him, got to tell him all about what they wanted and they let us take as many pictures as we wanted.

Finally, because we all love the Christmas tree, I think it has to be my favourite part of Christmas, because of the smell, the lights, spending time decorating it, admiring its beauty but mostly because it is the place where all the presents go on the big day.

There are so many beautiful things to look at and remember, hopefully making magic for the children in years to come.

Easy to Decorate Gingerbread House

I recently saw this gingerbread house kit in the Aldi catalogue and after a nightmare trying to glue the pieces together on a kit we bought last year from Ikea, I decided to give this a try.

The kit comes with everything you need to decorate the house and as it is pre built, so if you are short on time you can get straight on to it.

Once you have squished the icing together for a few minutes it becomes soft enough to start icing the house, I did the icing and I let the kids decorate with the sweets. The box has a great detailed picture of what you can do with the included ingredients.

Although the bag of icing split whilst I was using it it tastes nice and was easy enough to ice the house with.

The house is already stuck to the board so you don't have to worry about it sliding off and even though we tipped it sidewards several times it stayed glued to the base.

Although not perfect the kids loved the sweets and covering the house in them and it looks pretty cute with some miniature presents and tree.

This set is the perfect way to get some yummy gingerbread goodness in to your home this Christmas without too much fuss, the kit costs £4.99.

DIY Fabric Garlands

I love to decorate the house and there is no better time to do this than at Christmas. These fabric garlands are a great way to add a splash of colour to your home, they won't break the bank as they can be made using old fabric scraps or even old clothes.

Firstly, choose your fabrics. I picked five fabrics and a red ribbon I had in the craft box. Cut the fabric into strips about 2cm wide and about 50cm long, you could use a few pieces of fabric and a few ribbons if you have them.

I chose to make mine look rustic so cut slightly up the fabric and then tore the rest of the way, this leaves a few strands of string hanging off.

Once you have cut all of your fabric into strips, you need to start building the garlands. To do this, stack one piece on top of another, mine have 11 pieces each, two strips of each fabric and one piece of ribbon. Once you are happy with how it looks, place the fabric pile with the rough side facing up and fold it over whatever string you are using. I am using brown string as it is a Christmas themed fabric selection.

Once you have folded it on itself, use either, another piece of brown string or, whatever you are using. I used some left over fabric and tied this around the garland, this part is made easier if you hang the string up, perhaps between two chairs, before adding the fabric.

Once you have done this with all of your fabric pieces, then you are ready to hang! You can make these as big or small as you like and you could have smaller garlands if you used thinner or shorter fabric pieces.

The garlands can be hung over your fireplace, on a wall or even on the window, they would also look great on the wall in a child's bedroom, you could make one using fabric to match their bedroom.

Black & White Photography Project Week 3

We visited our local park this week and there is a tropical house (I know a tropical house when it's nearly 30c we are mad). But it was actually quite cool as the doors were open and we got to see some lovely plants.

Linking up to the Black & White Photo Project on POD cast blog

The Magic of Life Butterfly House in Aberystwyth

Whilst in Wales we visited several places, but one place that has stayed in our hearts was The Magic Of Life Butterfly House.

We were lucky enough to arrive just after some art students who were being shown some of the fabulous bugs that resided in the reception area.

This amazing millipede, started out all curled up and unfurled to show his many, many little legs, my son was in complete awe.

Giant Millepede

Next we got to see this fabulous Goliath beetle, it is fair to say had this taken off I would have been out of there like a shot. According to Neil the owner of The Magic of Life it flies and sounds somewhat like a drunk motorcycle.

Goliath Beetle

You can't really tell how beautiful this is but the horse head grasshopper, really wonderful creature and well worth a google to see what the face actually looks like.

Horse Head Grasshopper

The many butterflies that flew around really wowed us, we got to see the caterpillars, pupa and then the butterflies they transform into, it was amazing to learn that after about 3 months of growing into a beautiful butterfly they only live for a few weeks.

Glasswing

This owl butterfly seemed to become attached to my husband and spent a good half an hour clinging to his hand.

Owl Butterfly

Finally as we walked out we got to see these beautiful little, well actually huge silk moth caterpillars.

Reading some of the reviews on Trip Advisor you may be put off, a few people mention how 'expensive' it is. However, I think this is subjective, we spent about an hour and half in there and my son got to do some brilliant drawings using pencils and paper the very kind students lent him as well as talking to Neil the owner who was knowledgeable and took the time to listen to him.

A clean house is a happy house?!?

I have been trying to keep on top of my cleaning, every time I watch My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding I feel ashamed and inadequate, these women cleaning the skirting boards!

I have never once cleaned the skirting boards in our house, maybe hoovered them but never got some soap and water out and started scrubbing them!

Last weeks episode saw one young girl cleaning with bleach and no gloves. There was actually shock on my face, my poor hands suffer enough, these women must be hard core.

They also said that if a boy/man was caught cleaning they call him a sissy, but I think it's because men just don't clean the same way and you'd just end up doing it again.

I clean the kitchen floor maybe once a fortnight if it's lucky, we have a steam mop so it is pretty easy but still when do I do it?

I vacuum at least twice a day, I can't cope with treading on bits of left over food or crumbs from breakfast!

I clean the kitchen one or twice a week and the bathroom once a week but there are a few dust bunnies in the rooms at times...but that's OK right?

On top of washing, ironing, taking the children out, cooking, working, running a business and so on...

...please someone tell me there is more to life than cleaning or am I a dirty and rubbish housewife?!?

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net